Webcomics A-Go-Go: SuperMassive Black Hole A*

Supermassive Black Hole A*, or simply A* (pronounced “A star”), tells stories of a human civilization at the center of the Milky Way galaxy: an area of space dominated by a gigantic black hole, where energy is abundant and life is cheap. How humans got there, and how they survive, remains to be seen.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets move into the gravy of what you are going to read. SuperMassive Black Hole A* reads much like stills taken from a movie . . . well, that is basically what it is. Conceived as flash shorts, the web comic sprang into existence when the creator Ben Chamberlain wanted to show progress daily, with each page being basically a slide from the slide show . Well, wouldn’t this be boring? HELL NO! In fact, I like the frantic pace in which you click through the slides, getting a heavy dose of black, with very minimal white shown, sometimes shades of grey here and there.

Insanely interesting for people with a fascination with the perils and wonders of space and a college degree in mathematics, or also interesting for people who barely scraped through high school geometry and don’t know the difference between a quasar and a solar flare. The story will pull at your heart strings, and maybe even tax your brain a bit. I know it personally sent me out to do a bit of research to further understand some of the things presented in the comic (and that is a good story when it makes you do homework because you WANT to).

Another bonus is a huge backlog of pages to navigate through (the comic updates 5 times a week), which is always a plus for web comics you really enjoy but may discover late. And depending on your reading speed, this could last you from a few hours to half a day. I do suggest taking some breaks, not so much because it becomes boring, but to save some days in the future (don’t gulp down your treat, space it out for enjoyment). Great, now I sound like my mother.

So turn out the lights, put on your favorite score to a film or show (I recommend the music from X-Files), and get ready to be engrossed.

—————————————————————— When John is not too busy trying to drink the nightmares away, he is blabbing on mindlessly about comics on the Burnt Weiners Comic Book Podcast. He makes a hobby out of knowing next to nothing about comics, but loving them all the same. We strongly discourage you from checking out Burntweiners.com. They cannot even spell “wieners” correctly.